Well started home cooking and loosing faith!

SandA

I started home cooking this week, and did my first shop buying the ingredients. It cost me a whopping £100 then my usual £40 shop. I must admit i have bulked on majority of spice jars, soy sauce, vinegars, sesame oil etc but i'm pretty sure they haven't cost the extra £60!

I'm really disappointed, as I really wanted to take up home cooking for when LO is weaned so I can feed him what we eat, but I can't afford £100 again for a week shop.

Can anyone recommend any cheap ingredient recipes that I can make next week to cut down the cost? This week I bought for Burritos, Stirfry, Sweet and Sour chicken, Fajitas, Fresh burgers and mash and chips and fresh sausages.

Thank you

SandA

sausage and mash and burgers and chips duh!

heavenleigh

Your first shop if you don't have a store cupboard will always be more hun, but is money well spent and should last weeks at least, got to run out and do the school run but it looks like you like to eat the sort of food we do, will add some recipes when i've got home and fed the monsters (burrito/fajita mix for eg is £1 is bought but can be made up for pence x)

Popperwell

Hi,
You've done it all in one go but now you have all your spices and other bits and bobs...hopefully you won't need to do that again and just replace something when it used up. Also most of what you have probably has long dates on them and if they are best before dates you'll probably be able to eat them past the dates.

They will give you variety to as you use the foods you have in your kitchen cupboards, pantry, fridge/freezer or like many on here if you have store room with extra foods for emergencies.

By emergencies that could be a week were income is tight due to an unexpected bill, not being able to get out to the shops etc...nothing major.

Many food sites on the internet will allow you put ingredients into a kind of search box and come back with some recipes and there are loads of threads on MSE with ideas.

I bet someone is along soon with some suggestions too. In the time I took to replay you have already had some help and some suggestions. That first shop always costs more...

spendingmad

Well done for starting to home cook and wanting to feed your LO great food!!

At first glance I suspect you have bought chicken breast fillets for the stir fry/sweet and sour and fajitas - is that correct? If so ALOT of your money wold have gone on that.

Fajitas are a treat in our house as by the time you by the fajita kit £2.50 sour cream £1 and chicken £3-4 and peppers and onions £2 it turns into a very expensive meal

Try looking at the rubber chicken thread (buying a whole chicken and doing roast one day, pie the next, stir fry day after and finising with homemade chicken soup using stock from the bones and scraps) 4 meals from one chicken

I am sure others will be along soon with other ideas but I need to go on the school run now!!

lostinrates

The store cupboars stuff IS money well spent, but I also suggest looking at your menu planning. That's a lot of meat in a week, (not ideal for budget or according to some for health ) and a lot of what i think of as 'big meals'.

I think including, for example, a soup night (perhaps with delicious homemade bread or rolls) would reduce your spend. A vegetarian pasta night ...remember it's not just tomato sauce you can use, there are as many ways to eat pasta as their are nights in the year, would also help the budget.

Other questions might be as well as home cooking, how much home prep are you planning...e.g. The stirfry..is it a veg pack or veg for you to prep (the bits of which could go in your soup)

mel48rose

You can't go wrong with casseroles/stews. Bulk them out with pulses/veg. Use a slow cooker if you have one, cuts down on the bills as well. Good luck!

SandA

Thank you for all the responses so quickly.

I try and negotiate less meat with OH but he refuses, REFUSES to eat meals without meat in them every night. Hes grown up thinking its normal to have meat with every single meal. I have negotiated a Cheese and Bean toastie night next week though.

Yeah your right about Fajitas being expensive meals! I've really gone old school and bought the wraps seperately, lime juice, spices etc to have a go at making my own. Last night I made burritos from scratch (Other then the mince and wraps) and to be honest it wasn't great. It was the seasoning I didn't get quite right I think, I copied a taco seasoning off line and it just didn't taste of anything much. Does anyone have a better burrito / taco seasoning recipe?

It probably didn't help I bought double the amount of mince needed so I could freeze some burritos, I froze 4 but I don't think me or OH will be rushing to eat them anytime soon! Lol!

I do hope my cooking skills improve over time, I don't know how long I can go on eating untasty food when its costing so much. I guess once I do build up all of my herbs and spices (I have bought about 12ish but I know theres a few others I need to get) it will decrease (I hope)

Thank you x

SandA

heavenleigh wrote: »

(burrito/fajita mix for eg is £1 is bought but can be made up for pence x)

Whats your recipe hun?

I mixed Chilli powder, oregano, garlic powder, paprika, cumin and a little salt and it tasted of nothing I mixed it all up and used 7tspb with 3/4 cups of water and the water never reduced and the whole thing just tasted of nothingness

Mojisola

SandA wrote: »

I do hope my cooking skills improve over time,

Why don't you plan on having two or three meals a week home-cooked rather than trying to change all in one go?

Find a few simple recipes - stews, casseroles, hearty soups, etc - and get good at those. Once you can throw those together without having to think about them, start adding new recipes to your weekly plans.

If you try to do too much too quickly, you might get disillusioned.

heavenleigh

SandA wrote: »

Thank you for all the responses so quickly.


Yeah your right about Fajitas being expensive meals! I've really gone old school and bought the wraps seperately, lime juice, spices etc to have a go at making my own. Last night I made burritos from scratch (Other then the mince and wraps) and to be honest it wasn't great. It was the seasoning I didn't get quite right I think, I copied a taco seasoning off line and it just didn't taste of anything much. Does anyone have a better burrito / taco seasoning recipe?

It probably didn't help I bought double the amount of mince needed so I could freeze some burritos, I froze 4 but I don't think me or OH will be rushing to eat them anytime soon! Lol!

I do hope my cooking skills improve over time, I don't know how long I can go on eating untasty food when its costing so much. I guess once I do build up all of my herbs and spices (I have bought about 12ish but I know theres a few others I need to get) it will decrease (I hope)

Thank you x

Quick post before feeding the devils (they have been promoted from monsters on the school run) Approved foods are doing the enchilada and fajita pacts (olde el paso) for 2 for £1.50 at the moment! i've got 30 at that price, they wont go out of date, usually make my own seasoning etc but 75p for the tortillas/seasoning sauces and salsa it won't go wrong in this house xx